White House aides' e-mail records gone

[journalist3072]

Source: AP via Yahoo News

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 24 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - E-mail records are missing for 51 of the 88 White House officials who had electronic message accounts with the Republican National Committee, the House Oversight Committee said Monday.

The Bush administration may have committed "extensive" violations of a law requiring that certain records be preserved, said the committee's Democratic chairman, adding that the panel will deepen its probe into the use of political e-mail accounts.

The committee's interim report said the number of White House officials who had RNC e-mail accounts, and the number of messages they sent and received, were more extensive than previously realized.

The administration has said that about 50 White House officials had RNC e-mail accounts during Bush's presidency. But the House committee found at least 88.








Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070618/ap_on_go_pr_wh/white_house_e_mails

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Just mind blowing, isn't it?

[Botany]

1. What law haven't they broken?

When is enough, enough?

God damn these lying, election stealing, inside trading,
media manipulating shits.

Lied to start a war too.

Pelosi you better imnpeach 'em now. Fuck the senate ....
we have the data and proof of their crimes ... rub it into
their noses.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

2. Remember the holy stink about Gore making a phone call from

the White House--it was all we heard about for months--but this isn't even reported.

[Skip Intro]

9. yes, I do

it was pounded by the media, much like "the sigh" - the media nevermind the repukes, slaughtered Gore while pimping bush. A fact that shouldn't be forgotten.

[pacalo]

3. Obstruction of justice.

I'm no lawyer, but common sense tells me that when the wrongdoers have the attitude that their crimes can't be proven if they get rid of the evidence, then there should be repercussions for roadblocking any type of oversight; a government should not be allowed to operate in an unchecked manner.

[Roy]

4. Much smaller penalty for losing the emails......

than for the crimes these emails could have maybe exposed.

Do the math...... they did.

[benld74]

5. I say waterboard the b*stards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Canuckistanian]

6. Who's doing all this "shredding"?

It's not easy to totally eliminate emails, especially when you consider all the multiple places an email could reside.

Mail servers at either end, backups, node servers, workstations, notebooks, Blackberries, etc.

Somebody had to "seek and destroy" all those emails. Not a trivial job.

Some competent IT person had to be either contracted for this or else it was done by gov't workers.

Either way, they should have known they were breaking the law.

Find THEM and the story will come out.

[Thor_MN]

11. It's easy to say they are gone if the system was designed from the ground up not to retain

Emails may still exist on other servers, and devices, but those are not under their control. If you are planning on covering your ass, just don't backup the message store in any overt way. When the user deletes the email, it's gone from the systems under your control and you can just shrug your shoulders and say, "It wasn't official government business, so no need to retain. Since it's gone, you can't prove that it was government business, so have a nice day."

[Maraya1969]

12. If they haven't destroyed the computers can't the information be retrieved

though them?

[Tiberius]

16. Not necessarily

I'm in IT, and a normal system, implemented in a normal way, will have emails retained at a number of different points along the way (backups, hard drives, etc.).

It would be possible, however, to design a system in such a way that you electronically "shred" emails after a certain period, you make sure you don't send backup tapes off site, or you don't do backups at all.

Upon an investigation, you can have a sudden server crash, made to look legitimate, when in reality it was caused by someone wanting to cover their tracks.

Bottom line - if the system was designed with these protections in mind, it certainly is possible to make email disappear. The old adage that email "never really disappears" only applies to the standard implementation of the infrastructure, such as in a corporate environment.

[burrowowl]

7. I am so surprised!

really! all their back-ups failed! They bought Vista and old e-mails counldn't be recovered! Their offices were robbed and all the computers stolen! etc.

:sarcasm:

[Tara_NM]

8. who wants to guess what they are trying to hide this time?

As the old saying goes those who have nothing to hide hide nothing.... so what do all you fab DU folks think the RNC is hiding this time?

[gratuitous]

14. No point in guessing

Because as bad as I imagine what they're covering up, this administration always seems to exceed my worst expectations. Guessing is just depressing.

[struggle4progress]

10. They're lyyyyying.

[Massachusetts]

13. Art. 1 Sec. 2 USe it!

Art.2 Sec. 4 Do It!

The Dems better get off their collective asses and do something soon.

[lonestarnot]

15. Well cough, my expectations were such that I still have my mind and ass fully attached.

[truthisfreedom]

17. I love reading lines like this:

"...the panel will deepen its probe..."

[Supersedeas]

18. crickets